You have often heard us say that we should favor natural materials above all others.
However, does this apply every time? What are the properties of the materials we wear most - wool and cotton - and how can they be useful to us? Is polyester necessarily bad? Is there a difference between synthetic and artificial materials?
This is an opportunity to dive back into the chemistry of materials...
Wool, queen of materials
We regularly recommend wool for everything that concerns winter pieces. This is neither snobbery nor druidic worship of Gaia our Mother Earth. No, it's pure practicality...
Insulating and thermoregulatory properties
The wool fiber is made up of tangled scales, a bit like roof tiles. Thanks to this structure, it can absorb humidity and release it.
This phenomenon allows us to have clothes that "breathe" : they evacuate natural water vapor from the body, whereas cotton will always be a little damp, will store water, and lose part of its insulating power.
The wool's scales are able to open to drain moisture to the outside. Nature is well made...
Conversely, it traps air, which also gives it an insulating power . Whether woven or knitted, wool is one of the best materials for this.
Wool wicks away moisture, while retaining air and heat . This is what makes it a great choice when it's cold.
A hydrophobic fiber
Wool is a hydrophobic material , meaning it repels water instead of absorbing it. Little experiment: if you dip the end of the sleeve of a wool sweater in a glass, only the submerged part will be wet without the water "rising up".
Depending on the weaving techniques and the treatments applied to the fabrics, certain wools are so hydrophobic that they become water-repellent .
As you can see, the water drops do not stick and roll along the wool like small marbles. This is more or less true depending on the wools, the weaves, and the treatments that follow. In all cases, wool will tend to repel water more than cotton, and to dry more quickly.
This is all the more true with the wool sheets that we use for coats. Unless you experience the flood, you will not get wet. It is no coincidence that the pea coat and the duffle coat, originally sailor's clothing, are also cut from woolen sheets.
A material rich in variety
Beyond the “common core” that we have just seen, each type of wool has its specificities . Virgin wool
Virgin wool, rougher than its counterparts, offers a more casual look. It is also very robust.
Conversely, wool like mohair is particularly light; fluffy, angora will refer to more feminine influences, where cashmere is renowned for its softness...
Towards new uses of wool
Today, wool - often merino - is also used to make underwear and t-shirts.
They dry quickly, are breathable and retain little odor, which makes them popular with athletes and travelers. This also makes them suitable for more summery looks.
Be careful, however, they may have a tendency to pilling.
The properties of cotton
It is appreciated for its inexpensive cultivation, the number of transformations that can be applied to it
Cotton is everywhere, it's undoubtedly the material we wear the most... for 15,000 years!
A hydrophilic fiber
As you will have understood, cotton is hydrophilic .
It absorbs water more, which is convenient for sportswear. It's also pleasant in summer because the material can be very airy, depending on the types of weaving used.
Don't wear shirts made from large, very dense poplins or Japanese denim in the middle of August.
It's not for nothing that the polo shirt was created for playing tennis! When worked in pique cotton, it absorbs even more moisture.
A material that is soft on the skin
Cotton is hypoallergenic . This is why most of our underwear, as well as baby items, are generally made of this material.
Limited insulation power
Although it is breathable, cotton does not offer great insulation capacity.
That said, it can be increased by scraping the material. This is what you see on the reverse side of some sweatshirts, where the fleece is given a fuzzier feel. This way it will retain heat better.
Scratching the loops of a fleece allows the cotton to retain heat more.
Obviously, its thickness also counts in its insulating action. Compare 9 oz jeans to 13 oz, the difference is immediate.
What about synthetic materials?
From oil to fabric...
A synthetic fiber is a material obtained by transforming hydrocarbons or starch.
These are the same chemical reactions that are used to make plastic objects, such as water bottles, for example. Except that instead of molding the plastics, we precipitate the fibers, which will be put into spools of thread before being woven.
Now, we can even recycle polyester bottles...
A matter of costs above all
Very often, polyesters, polyamides and others are only used to reduce the cost of manufacturing the garment... and its quality in the process . After cotton, polyester is today the second most used fiber in the textile industry.
This is why we tend to advise against it at BonneGueule. And very logically, the more polyester you put in a peacoat or sweater, the more you replace the breathable and insulating properties of wool with those... of plastic.
Concretely, plastic can insulate depending on the weaving, but it will be inert in relation to water. As a result, the clothing will breathe little, which will make you sweat . Great, isn't it? If it's cold, you also risk getting sick. With natural materials, this kind of pitfall will not happen.
Polyester fiber. I don't know about you, but that doesn't sound very sweet to me...
Some cases justifying synthetic
Play on the final rendering of the part
In certain cases, synthetic materials will be used for particular resistance or rendering properties (without this being a generality either).
That said, don't panic if you fall for a coat with 10% polyamide: it can affect the drape and final appearance of the woolen cloth. However, do not exceed 20% synthetic: beyond that, it is no longer really a wool piece. In this regard, read the labels and compositions, especially when you buy on the Web .
The world of techwear
Techwear refers to a very specific category of our wardrobe, made from technical materials resulting from advanced processes. Although synthetic, they are mainly used to achieve "performance" : robustness, breathability, waterproofing...
This is a special case, where even the construction of the garment is not done according to the usual principles. The research is pushed into the cuts, to offer more range of movement in particular.
Typically, this is what you find on certain anoraks and winter parkas, on softshells or even sports clothing (less urban, in this case).
Technical clothing presents another approach: the synthetic materials used serve a specific performance purpose.
Also discover the 5 French techwear brands to follow in the first episode of Parlons Clothes .
The exception of artificial fibers
Artificial fibers occupy a slightly different position: although they do not exist as such in nature, they are always made from natural raw materials.
It is therefore a material obtained from the dissolution of an organic compound. By dissolving milk proteins, then precipitating them after treatment, we obtain, for example, a fiber very close to silk: lanital.
Obtained from milk, lanital offers a finish quite close to silk.
In the same way, the dissolution and then precipitation of wood bark makes it possible to obtain viscose, the properties of which are similar to cotton.
Not prone to friction, it is very useful for lining the sleeves of suits and coats
Viscose is often used to line suits, thanks to its properties similar to cotton.
Mother Nature vs. Synthetic: who is the most durable?
Well, it's difficult to give a precise answer.
Everything will depend on the material in the first place, and what we mean by solidity. Nylon resists very well to abrasion, but less well than silk to elongation. Other materials are more or less resistant to traction, while some dissolve in water...
The purity of the material and its overall quality will also influence its properties.
But material is not everything, far from it! The weaving technique
Keep your eyes peeled! And if you want to delve deeper into the subject of materials, you can dive back into:
